New bike project underway near Tech Square
Crews starting painting lanes to help cyclists cross West Peachtree Street
Local blogger and award-winning debate coach Pecanne Log sent snapshots she took while picking fights with strangers walking around Midtown of a new bicycling facility under construction near the intersection of 5th and West Peachtree streets. Here’s another shot.
The painted bike-lane project, a combined effort between Georgia Tech, the Midtown Alliance, the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition, and the city’s Transportation Planning division, is aimed to help bicyclists cross busy West Peachtree Street while pedaling along 5th Street. (CL’s legendary Intern George wrote about the project last September when it was a wee proposal.) According to the ABC, it includes two bike ramps and a “Copenhagen Left.” The initiative cost $34,000, a relatively inexpensive amount when compared to other initiatives.
“It’s one of those projects that has a high impact without costing a huge amount of dollars,” says Shannon Powell, the Midtown Alliance’s chief operating officer. “It’s an important connector.”
Powell expects crews to finish work by Oct. 12, the same day the partners will hold a ribbon-cutting to celebrate the project’s official opening. Afterward, the public is invited to City Hall, where those same partners, the Atlanta Police Department’s Bike Patrol, Bikes Belong, the Atlanta Regional Commission, Mayor Kasim Reed’s Office of Sustainability, and BATMA will hold the city’s first Bike Expo between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. We hear a “major city initiative” involving bikes — we’ve heard whispers about a new app for local bicyclists? — will be unveiled at the events. Got details? Let us know.
Look for more announcements next week about Midtown streetscape and bicycling projects that will kick off in 2013, some of which might be similar in scope to what you see above. In other words, small projects in key areas which, when put together, help bicyclists and pedestrians move around town.
NOTE: This post has been updated to include information about the city’s participation in the 5th Street bike project and to add details about the Bike Expo.